By [ad_1]
James Wan revealed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom draws inspiration from Planet of the Vampires. Here’s a breakdown of the cult sci-fi/horror classic.
Director James Wan got his start in the horror genre, kicking off his career with the Saw franchise before co-creating The Conjuring cinematic universe, and eventually joining the DCEU with Aquaman in 2018. With production underway on Arthur Curry’s next adventure, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Wan recently revealed that the sequel is drawing heavy inspiration from Planet of the Vampires, a 1965 Italian cult sci-fi/horror classic directed by Mario Bava.
“You can take the boy out of horror, but you can never take the horror out of the boy,” Wan said when talking about the upcoming sequel. This isn’t the first time the director has drawn inspiration from Italian cinema, as his new horror movie, Malignant, is described as being a Giallo, a type of Italian slasher film, and the director has made previous comments about the Aquaman sequel containing more horror elements than its predecessor.
What Planet of the Vampires is About
Planet of the Vampires tells the story of two interplanetary vessels on a mission to deep space that receive a distress signal from a nearby planet called Aura. When the ships land on the mist-enshrouded world, the crew members start to become possessed by a strange force that causes them to kill each other. Eventually, the remaining crew members discover that the survivors of the Auran race have lured them to the dying planet in the hopes of killing them and escaping on their spacecrafts. Despite the valiant attempts of the crew members, the Aurans succeed in killing the humans, and the film ends with the aliens making their way to Earth in one of the stolen spaceships.
The First Aquaman’s Lovecraftian Influences
The first Aquaman film was heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, one of the most famous horror writers of all time. Not only is the romance between Aquaman’s human father and Atlantean mother reminiscent of the interspecies relationship between humans and the Deep Ones in Lovecraft’s story The Shadow over Innsmouth, but the monstrous inhabitants of The Trench resemble the aquatic terrors from that very same tale. Even the leviathan that Arthur encounters near the end of the film, a giant tentacled monstrosity, is similar to one of The Old Ones, an ancient race of squid-like beings that frequent Lovecraft’s works.
What We Know About Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s Plot
At 2020’s DC FanDome, Wan revealed the Aquaman sequel “is a little bit more serious, a little bit more relevant to the world we’re living in today.” Though Aquaman united the kingdoms of the ocean under his rule at the end of the first movie, a “lost kingdom” was briefly mentioned as well, presumably the same one referenced by the followup’s title. Black Manta actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has also said his character will “loom larger” in the second film, with Patrick Wilson reprising his villainous role as Arthur’s half-brother Orm after the original Aquaman hinted at a possible redemption for the former Ocean Master.
Though much about this new film is still unknown, the plot of Planet of the Vampires (survivors of a dying race luring others with a distress call in the hopes of escape) may be the biggest clue as to what the actual narrative for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could be. Combined with Wan’s comments about more horror in the sequel, it seems Arthur Curry’s next adventure will be a darker and scarier ride than his first outing.
Directed by James Wan, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrives in theaters Dec. 16, 2022.
About The Author
[ad_2]
